This invention relates to electrical circuit board interconnect systems, and particularly to bodily-rotatable interconnect elements used to connect contact pads on opposed circuit board surfaces.
It is known to use bodily-rotatable interconnect elements in a matrix-like support member to electrically connect contact pads on opposing surfaces of two circuit boards. Such elements and their support structures are disclosed in Zifcak et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,793,814, which patent is incorporated herein by reference. Zifcak demonstrates interconnect elements composed entirely of electrically conductive material, each element connecting a single pad on one opposing circuit board surface to a corresponding single pad on the other board surface.
Objectives of the present invention include: providing such an interconnect element having predetermined electrical characteristics; providing such interconnect elements adapted to control impedance in the circuit, or adapted to lower the inductance of circuit board interconnections or terminations, or adapted to act as terminal resistors in the circuit, or adapted to act as decoupling capacitors; and providing connector systems containing a multiplicity of interconnect elements having one or more of these or other predetermined electrical characteristics.